Posted on 10/09/2010 9:29:16 AM PDT by Paladins Prayer
In this time of Tea Parties and tanking Democrat poll numbers, people are, depending on their point of view, hailing or howling about an apparent conservative groundswell. More traditional folks anxiously anticipate a GOP landslide in November, while many liberals warn of the perils of our current rightward shift.
What are they concerned about? I’m not sure. I wasn’t aware that the federal Department of Education had been eliminated, the income tax repealed and IRS abolished, Roe v. Wade overturned, hate-crime laws rescinded, and the NEA and public broadcasting defunded. I also haven’t heard about a huge influx of traditionalists into academia, the media, and Hollywood and a robust upswing in church attendance among the young. Perhaps I’m out of the loop.
Of course, I do understand that when people talk about a conservative resurgence, they speak of the electorate’s mood. Yet, even if there is in some quarters a newfound awareness of the dangers of metastasizing government and constitutional trespass, there is a gulf between mood and action. And no matter what the prospects for Election Day, as the song says, it “don’t mean nothin’ till you sign it on the dotted line.”
(Excerpt) Read more at thenewamerican.com ...
Yes, good piece. But the Ostrich Brigade will keep heads in sand and consider victory at hand, rather than realize victory is nowhere near.
from the article:
“Well, simply put, how can we expect vice-ridden people to vote for virtuous government? People who have lived an “If it feels good, do it” lifestyle, governed by their emotions, are easy prey for a demagogue adept at manipulating emotion. To provide just two examples, play upon their greed and envy with the class-warfare card or cater to their desire to justify their sins by preaching against “judgmentalism,” and you can lead the vice-ridden by the nose. This is why seizing control of the culture — most particularly academia, the media, and entertainment — is imperative if our nation is ever to experience a true “rightward shift,” otherwise known as movement toward virtue. “
This writer should be hired immediately by the RNC! Pay him handsomely and get this message out. The right must stop bending leftward and hold ground. I’m in my fifties and my WHOLE LIFE I’ve watched the slow cultural compromise with marxist evil, from the beats to the hippies to the lefty professors to the community activists, eventually to the White House itself.
Enough!
"This is because liberals are far closer to an irresistible force than conservatives are to an immovable object. In a relativistic, compromise-crazy society especially, the side that agitates for change always drives the agenda. Here’s how it works: Liberals come to the bargaining table demanding a certain change (note: hope optional). Many conservatives, figuring that a decent, reasonable person compromises, will, after the requisite haggling, then give them a measure of what they want. Oh, it could half, a quarter or even just five percent, but the percentage doesn’t matter. This is because the liberals, like Arne, will be back. In the not-too-distant future they’ll lobby for the same change again — and they’ll be given another slice of their agenda. And after this process continues for a while, they soon have the whole loaf. I call this compromising our way to tyranny."
Couldn't this paragraph have been written at anytime during the past seven hundred years?
Even a landslide victory in both houses will serve only to keep us in the game. To believe otherwise is to guarantee we lose in the longer term.
We are down 3 touchdowns in the fourth quarter & we have just intercepted a pass at our own 5 yard line. Significant electoral gains on 11/2 will be that interception.
That should put it into perspective for our overly euphoric comrades.
It’s not footbsll, that’s the big problem with Americans. Games over - time to party. Win the skirmish abd lose the war. Soldiers in Nam did a one year rotation, in WW2 they were in for the duration.
It’s a nice thought. But I don’t think the RNC would touch this guy with a 10-foot pole. Remember, Bush wouldn’t even let Alan Keyes in the White House from what I understand.
Stop harshing our mellow, Mr Duke!
Volumes in that phrase. We should pound our legislators relentlessly and forever with that.
Excellent article!
I’ll also say that the article he links up to is great also. It’s about libertarianism and why is can be a mistake.
There is a new idea of how to both put the federal government house in order, and to clean up 200+ years of federal encroachment of the powers reserved for the individual States and the people.
A constitutional amendment creating the “Second Court of the United States”.
It would be directly below the Supreme Court of the United States in authority, but above the federal District Courts. Importantly, the Second Court would *not* itself be a federal court.
It would be composed of 100 State judges, appointed by the individual State legislatures, as originally were US Senators, before the 17th Amendment took that power from the States and left the people without the protection of the States from federal authority(*).
It would serve two primary purposes. First of all, each year, some 8,000 cases are appealed to the Supreme Court, of which it can hear just a dozen or two. Since they are so overburdened, most of these cases must fall back to whatever the Circuit Courts decided, for better, or often, for worse.
A large percentage of these cases should never have entered the federal courts, as they are clearly State jurisdiction. There is no federal issue involved, though their pretends to be. So the Second Court could decide to strip them of their federal involvement entirely, and return them to State jurisdiction.
This would be by a panel of these State judges, or if necessary, it would be heard by the entire Second Court. Only if it made it through that gauntlet, regarded by those judges as a *real* constitutional question, could it make it to the docket of the SCOTUS. Reducing the caseload of the SCOTUS to perhaps a manageable 200-300 cases a year.
An example of this would be that say, the State of Maine decided to execute condemned prisoners by hanging. A federal judge intervenes and says, “No, that is cruel and unusual. You can only execute by (spins wheel), tickling their feet with ostrich feathers!”
When the case arrives at the Second Court, they decide that, no, hanging is neither cruel nor unusual. This is not a federal matter. So the case is remanded to the State with permission to carry out their sentence as they see fit.
The other primary jurisdiction of the Second Court of the United States would be original jurisdiction, to hear cases brought by the States against the federal government, or by the federal government against the States.
Right now, states must go through their State federal District judge, then to a panel of their federal Circuit Court, then the Circuit Court as a whole, and finally to the Supreme Court, a process that takes years and wastes time, because no State issue against the federal government is decided at a level lower than the SCOTUS, unless somebody just quits out of exhaustion.
So instead, if the States object to a new federal law, regulation, or executive order, they go right to the Second Court of the United States, where the States as a group decide if the federal action or authority is acceptable. If the Second Court rejects it, by a simple majority, it can still be appealed by the administration to the SCOTUS, but if a 2/3rds majority of the Second Court find against it, it is dead.
So, in effect, any part of the federal government can be eliminated by a 2/3rds majority of the Second Court, if a State challenges it, or at least whatever it is, is forwarded to the SCOTUS for constitutional review. That is, only half the States may say that the Department of Education should be abolished, but their recommendation to the SCOTUS says that they think it is constitutionally questionable, so needs to be either justified or eliminated.
It cannot “just exist” because congress wants it to. It *must* be justified as within federal authority. No weasel words allowed.
Importantly, for the first time in US history, there would be a constitutional means to reduce the size of the federal government in an orderly process, as determined by the individual States, not the federal government itself.
(*) Justice Thomas created a superb thesis in his concurrent decision in MacDonald vs. City of Chicago. It revitalized the 14th Amendment protections of the people, by the federal government, against abusive State governments.
However, with the 17th Amendment, the Direct Election of Senators, the power of the States to protect their citizens from an abusive federal government was lost. So while the people are protected from the States, they are not protected from the federal government, as they should be.
A Second Court of the United States would renew this protection, and return to the States their voice in the operation of the federal government.
Or, run for President!
Thank you Sunken. I see that actor James Urbaniak was attacking the author. If Hollywood hates him it just proves he’s ok.
During the Cold War, I remember some West Germans, in dealing with the Communists, called it "The Artichoke Principle". Just keep peeling the leaves one at a time and soon there's nothing left. The Communists called it "Two steps forward, one step back."
Frighteningly true. It’s obvious when you look at it as Mr. Duke has expostulated.
The desperate need for changing our national values is something Glenn Beck's 'Restoring Honor' rally on August 28th tried to promote, which is why it was billed as 'non-partisan'. A political party won't 'save' America - only the people can do that. They can only accomplish this feat if they have a change of heart and a different view of the world and our place in it. I fear that may no longer be possible but I refuse to despair after seeing what Beck's rally produced. Meanwhile, Mr. Duke's observations are astute but rather pessimistic.
Exactly true.
The reality is that the best we can hope for from November is a halt to the leftward tack of Obama. Very few if any of us actually think the Republicans have the guts, the will, the skills, or even the desire to roll back Federal power, overturn the top down edicts of DC, and start returning to Constitutional government. It will be a holding pattern.
A country gets the government it deserves ... look around. We are largely a corrupt, amoral country, with masses of people who feel entitled to handouts and special considerations. Corruption and lies are daily part of life. Even the idea of “restoring honor” to our personal, professional, and political endeavors is nothing more than a punchline to half this country.
You cannot work within the system to fix the system if the system is rotten to the core ...
Yep...
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